WikiLeaks Release 300K Emails Related to Turkey’s ruling Party

The group leaked the documents despite being under a major cyber attack for more than 24 hours by suspected allies of the Turkish government.

WikiLeaks released its first batch of leaked emails from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Tuesday. Founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the whistleblowing group claims the documents offer an inside look into the power structures within Turkey and its most powerful political party.

“Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with ‘A’ through to ‘I’ containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files,” WikiLeaks said on its website. “The emails come from “akparti.org.tr”, the AKP’s primary domain.”

The documents were released amid more than 24 hours of cyber attacks against WikiLeaks’ after it announced the major leak. The group’s Twitter account suggested the attacks could be from Turkish political forces fighting against the release of the documents. “We are unsure of the true origin of the attack. The timing suggests a Turkish state power faction or its allies. We will prevail & publish.”

The release of the documents was moved ahead of schedule, the group said, because of the recent coup attempt in Turkey and the ensuing crackdown by the government. The leak was supposed to happen at the end of the year.

“The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government’s post-coup purges,” the statement added.

The emails date all the way back to 2010 and the most recent one was sent on July 6, 2016. However, WikiLeaks said that “emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.”

WikiLeaks said Monday that it was planning to release documents on Turkey’s political power structure after a failed coup attempt over the weekend.

“Get ready for a fight as we release 100k+ docs on #Turkey’s political power structure,” WikiLeaks said on its Twitter feed.

The Turkish government ordered police forces around the country to down any helicopters without warning while President Erdogan said he ordered all the country’s F-16 jet planes to patrol the country’s airspace, local media reported Sunday evening.

Erdogan also called for the possibility of reintroducing the death penalty, while Germany reacted by announcing it would would mean “an end to Turkey’s EU accession talks.”

answering my own question, via Hurriyetlink to hurriyetdailynews.com
YÖK also suspended all assignments of academics abroad and asked for the academics currently assigned abroad to return to Turkey.
In a written statement sent to both state and private universities, YÖK requested the suspension of the assignments of academics to foreign countries until further notice. It also demanded examinations of the situations of academics working abroad and said they should be called back if there was no immediate necessity for them to remain in the foreign country.

Over 50,000 government employees (plus 21,000 private school teachers) suspended or sacked, and the numbers continue to rise.
Military judges and prosecutors suspended just in time for the Koup trials. Long-time Istanbul Governor Topbas promises a “Graveyard for Traitors” in the city and sets aside land for it.
Erdogan has gone full NRA: wants citizens armed to prevent an actual coup (this one, the government was informed of and began reacting against six hours before it started).

This is a win for democracy if Tayyip still has the support of 50%+1. But it also reminds us why Stathis Gourgouris writes that “democracy is a tragic regime.” The will of the people — the national will as Erdogan calls it and claims to embody it — is lawless. Turkey has a constitution but Erdogan has systematically disregarded it since becoming president. Most of his actions violate the constitution (and, with regard to the 2015 election, the will of the people).